PTSD

July 7, 2010

V.A. Is Easing
Rules to Cover Stress Disorder

By
JAMES DAO

The
government is preparing to issue new rules that
will make it substantially easier for veterans
who have been found to have
post-traumatic stress disorder to
receive disability benefits, a change that could
affect hundreds of thousands of veterans from
the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

The regulations from the
Department of Veterans Affairs, which
will take effect as early as Monday and cost as
much as $5 billion over several years according
to Congressional analysts, will essentially
eliminate a requirement that veterans document
specific events like bomb blasts, firefights or
mortar attacks that might have caused
P.T.S.D., an illness characterized by
emotional numbness,

irritability and flashbacks.

For
decades, veterans have complained that finding
such records was extremely time consuming and
sometimes impossible. And in the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans groups assert
that the current rules discriminate against tens
of thousands of service members — many of them
women — who did not serve in combat roles but
nevertheless suffered traumatic experiences.

Under the new rule, which applies to veterans of
all wars, the department will grant compensation
to those with
P.T.S.D. if they can simply show that they
served in a war zone and in a job consistent
with the events that they say caused their
conditions. They would not have to prove, for
instance, that they came under fire, served in a
front-line unit or saw a friend killed.

The
new rule would also allow compensation for
service members who had good reason to fear
traumatic events, known as stressors,
even if they did not actually experience them.

There are concerns that the change will open the
door to a flood of fraudulent claims. But
supporters of the rule say the veterans
department will still review all claims and thus
be able to weed out the baseless ones.

Though widely applauded by veterans’ groups, the
new rule is generating criticism from some
quarters because of its cost. Some
mental health experts also believe it
will lead to economic dependency among younger
veterans whose conditions might be treatable.

Disability benefits include free physical and
mental health care and monthly checks ranging
from a few hundred dollars to more than $2,000,
depending on the severity of the condition.

“I
can’t imagine anyone more worthy of public
largess than a veteran,” said
Dr. Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and
fellow at the
American Enterprise Institute, a
conservative policy group, who has written on
P.T.S.D. “But as a clinician, it is destructive
to give someone total and permanent disability
when they are in fact capable of working, even
if it is not at full capacity. A job is the most
therapeutic thing there is.”

“I
know guys who are rated 100 percent disabled who
keep coming back for treatment not because they
are worried about losing their compensation, but
because they want their life back,” Mr. Weidman
said.

Mr.
Weidman and other veterans’ advocates said they
were disappointed by one provision of the new
rule: It will require a final determination on a
veteran’s case to be made by a psychiatrist or
psychologist who works for the veterans
department.

The
advocates assert that the rule will allow the
department to sharply limit approvals. They
argue that private physicians should be allowed
to make those determinations as well.

But
Tom Pamperin, associate deputy under secretary
for policy and programs at the veterans
department, said the agency wanted to ensure
that standards were consistent for the
assessments.

“V.A. and V.A.-contract clinicians go through a
certification process,” Mr. Pamperin said. “They
are well familiar with military life and can
make an assessment of whether the stressor is
consistent with the veterans’ duties and place
of service.”

The
new rule comes at a time when members of
Congress and the veterans department itself are
moving to expand health benefits and disability
compensation for a variety of disorders linked
to deployment. The projected costs of those
actions are generating some opposition, though
probably not enough to block any of the
proposals.

The
rule, proposed last fall by the veterans
department, would presume those diseases were
caused by exposure to Agent Orange, the chemical
defoliant, if a veteran could simply demonstrate
that he had set foot in Vietnam during the war.

The
rule, still under review, is projected to cost
more than $42 billion over a decade.

More
than two million service members have deployed
to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001, and by some
estimates 20 percent or more of them will
develop P.T.S.D.

More
than 150,000 cases of P.T.S.D. have been
diagnosed by the veterans health system among
veterans of the two wars, while thousands more
have received diagnoses from private doctors,
said Paul Sullivan, executive director of
Veterans for Common Sense, an
advocacy group.

But
Mr. Sullivan said records showed that the
veterans department had approved P.T.S.D.
disability claims for only 78,000 veterans. That
suggests, he said, that many veterans with the
disorder are having their compensation claims
rejected by claims processors. “Those statistics
show a very serious problem in how V.A. handles
P.T.S.D. claims,” Mr. Sullivan said.

Representative John Hall, Democrat of New York
and sponsor of legislation similar to the new
rule, said his office had handled dozens of
cases involving veterans who had trouble
receiving disability compensation for P.T.S.D.,
including a Navy veteran from World War II who
twice served on ships that sank in the Pacific.

“It
doesn’t matter whether you are an infantryman or
a cook or a truck driver,” Mr. Hall said.
“Anyone is potentially at risk for
post-traumatic
stress.”

VA to Accept Military's PTSD
Diagnosis

February 25, 2008

Veterans who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
while on active duty will now be recognized as having PTSD for VA
purposes. This decision will end VA's requirement that veterans
diagnosed with PTSD while on active duty provide additional evidence
of exposure to specific stressors during their service in order to
establish their diagnosis of PTSD. Responding to an inquiry from U.S.
SenatorDaniel K.
Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, VA
Secretary Peake directed the VA regional offices to no longer require
such evidence but instead to immediately schedule examinations for
such veterans in order to determine the severity of their PTSD for VA
compensation purposes

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Overview Posttraumatic Stress Disorder can occur following a life-threatening
event like military combat, natural disasters, terroristincidents,serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape. Most
survivors of trauma return to normal given a little time.
However, some people have stress reactions that don't go away on their own, or may
even get worse over time. These individuals may develop PTSD.People who suffer from PTSD often suffer from nightmares, flashbacks,
difficulty sleeping, and feeling emotionally numb. These symptoms can
significantly impair a person's daily life. PTSD is marked by clear physical and psychological symptoms. It often
has symptoms like depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and
cognition, and other physical and mental health problems. The disorder
is also associated with difficulties in social or family life, including
occupational instability, marital problems, family discord, and
difficulties in parenting.If you are suffering from PTSD, or know someone who is, the following
list of resources and information will help you find help in dealing
with PTSD and related conditions.

PTSDFRIDAY, April 30,2010 (HealthDay News) -- Injecting a local
anesthetic next to a group of nerves in the neck,known as the
stellate ganglion, is a fast-acting and effective way to treat
combat-related post-traumaticstress disorder (PTSD), U.S. military
researchers report.

The 10-minute procedure, called a stellate
ganglion block, has been used to treat chronic pain and certain
other health problems since 1925, according to background information
in a news release about the research.

The team at Walter Reed
Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., tested the block procedure on
two patients:a 36-year-old man whose PTSD symptoms began after the
battle of Fallujah in Iraq and a 46-year-old maleveteran whose
PTSD symptoms began 18 years ago in the first Gulf War.

Both
men had been receiving drug treatment for more than a year, but it had
been ineffective in treating their PTSD symptoms, according to the
Walter Reed report. In addition, both men suffered side effects from
the drugs, including depression, sleepiness and erectile dysfunction.

"Unlike conventional treatments for PTSD, SGB appears to provide
results almost immediately," Dr. Sean W.Mulvaney, the Army
lieutenant colonel who led the Walter Reed research, said in the news
release. "Both patients experienced immediate, significant and
durable relief."

The cases studies were published online April
20 in Pain Practice.

SOURCE: Advanced Pain Centers, news
release, April 30, 2010

HealthDay

After math of war coping with PTSD too
A Safe Haven of Support for those whose battles live on in The
Aftermath of War.

Compassion and
love heal.

Together, we can end the war at
home.

Bob,
This is very special to me. This is my story
since Viet Nam. This is something that the Worrier's who
have been in the killing fields, need to hear as part on their
debriefing. Not to EVER lose the last line, "and, I would
need cleansing in all these things". Their feelings
need to be validated by the old worrier's, and to know that help is in
the worriers tent with the medicine man, the chief, and GOD. There
can be much cleansing done!
A warrior gave this to me in a PTSD group therapy session. Author
is unknown, you can use it.
Tom Duthie

Nez Perce Warrior's
Reflection:

They said I would be changed
in my body.
I would move through the physical world in a different manner.
I would hold myself in a different posture.
I would have pain where there was no blood.
I would react to sights, sounds, movement and touch in a crazy way, as
though I were back in war.

They said I would be wounded in my thoughts.
I would forger how to trust, and I would think that others were trying
to hurt me. I would see dangers in the kindness and concern of my
relatives and others.

Most of all, I would not be able to think in a reasonable manner,
and it would seem that everyone else was crazy.

They told me that it would appear to me that I was alone
even in the midst of the people, and that there was no one else like me.

They warned me that it would be as though my emotions were locked up,
and I would be cold in my heart and not remember the ways of caring for
others.

While I might give meat and blankets to the elders, or food to the
children, I would not be able to feel the goodness of these actions.
That I would do these things out of habit and not from caring.
They predicted that I might do harm to others without plan or
intention.

They knew that my spirit would be wounded.

They said I would be lonely and that I would find no comfort in family,
friends, elders or spirits. I would be cut off from both beauty
and pain. My dreams would be dark and frightening. My days would
be filled with searching and not finding. I would not be able to find
connections between myself and the rest of creation. I would look
forward to an early death.

Brief information about the Department of Veterans Affair’s network
of more than 100 specialized programs for veterans with PTSD, including
the Vet Centers operated by VA's Readjustment Counseling Service